The SEND Code of Practice Explained: Guide for Schools and SENCOs

Whether you're a parent trying to understand your child's support, a teacher looking for practical guidance, or a SENCo checking that your school's provision is on the right track, this guide explains what the SEND Code of Practice means in everyday education. The SEND Code of Practice is statutory guidance for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England, covering children and young people from birth to age 25 and bringing education, health and care responsibilities together around the individual. We explore the current position, the proposed SEND reforms, the graduated approach, the four broad areas of need, one-page profiles and the responsibilities of schools, SENCOs, governors and parents.

What is the SEND code of practice?

The SEND Code of Practice is statutory guidance setting out how schools, local authorities and health services in England should support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. The guidance creates a framework for education, health and care services to work together around the child or young person rather than treating each area of need in isolation. 

The Code sits alongside the Children and Families Act 2014, which provides the underlying legal framework for the SEND system. It explains how organisations should put those duties into practice and applies across early years settings, maintained schools, academies, free schools, further education colleges and local authorities.

SEND Code of Practice: The Key Points

If you need a quick SEND Code of Practice summary, these are the main principles to understand:

• It is statutory guidance linked to the Children and Families Act 2014.
• It covers children and young people with SEND from 0 to 25.
• It promotes a person-centred approach involving children, young people and their parents.
• It places strong emphasis on early identification and appropriate intervention.
• It requires education, health and care services to work together.
• It promotes a graduated approach to SEN Support.
• It focuses on outcomes rather than simply listing difficulties or diagnoses.
• Introduced Education, Health and Care Plans to replace Statements of SEN.

The Code is statutory rather than simply advisory, and organisations covered by it must have regard to the guidance. In practice, this means the Code should be a central reference point when schools and other bodies make decisions about SEND provision. You may also come across the phrase "SEN Code of Practice". This refers to the same broad statutory guidance, although SEND is the current terminology and reflects the inclusion of disabilities alongside special educational needs. The Code defines special educational needs as a learning difficulty or disability that calls for special educational provision to be made, and a pupil does not necessarily need a formal diagnosis before a school can identify a barrier to learning and provide appropriate support.

Who the Code Applies to & its Key Principles

The guidance is built around several principles that should influence how SEND support is identified, planned and delivered. The first is a family-centred approach whereby children and parents are involved in decisions about support. The views, wishes and feelings of everyone are taken into account when deciding about which provision is most appropriate.

The next is the importance of early identification and intervention. Schools should identify emerging needs as early as possible and respond before any difficulties become more entrenched. However, early support does not mean waiting for formal diagnosis, but identifying barriers through observation, assessment, conversations, and lived experiences.

Tailored support is another key principle, and SEND provision should respond to the individual rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all intervention. For example, two pupils with dyslexia will have very different strengths and barriers, and while one might benefit from assistive technology, another may need additional support with working memory, organisation and written output.  

The code also encourages joined-up working between education, health and care, reducing the need to repeat the same information to multiple parties, and creating a stronger focus on the overall outcomes.

SEND Code of Practice Versions: 2015, and what the 2025/26 Reforms Actually Change

One of the most common sources of confusion is the assumption that there is a new version of the Code every year; however, this is not the case.

Is There a New SEND Code of Practice for 2025 or 2026?

No. The current SEND Code of Practice remains the one issued in 2015. The Government published a schools white paper and a SEND consultation on 23 February 2026 and has committed to updating the SEND system, but the proposals do not mean that a new Code has already replaced the existing one. The reforms are expected to require legislation, with the timetable outlined in the supplied guidance indicating that legislation is not expected before around 2029 and that there are no changes to EHCP support expected before at least 2030. The government also announced a £200 million SEND training programme in January 2026. This is a training initiative connected to SEND provision and the existing framework, rather than a newly numbered version of the Code.

From the 2014 Act to the 2015 Code

The relationship between the legislation and the guidance is another useful distinction. The Children and Families Act 2014 established the legal framework for the modern SEND system, while the SEND Code of Practice 2015 was published to provide statutory guidance explaining how those duties should be met. The reforms introduced a number of significant changes, including replacing Statements of Special Educational Needs with Education, Health and Care Plans. The age range was also extended, bringing support within the system up to age 25 for eligible young people.

The Graduated Approach: Assess, Plan, Do, Review

The graduated approach is one of the most important practical elements of the SEND framework, and it provides a four-stage cycle for identifying needs, planning support, putting provision in place and reviewing its impact.

What is the Graduated Approach in SEND?

The graduated approach is the four-part Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle schools use to identify and meet special educational needs. It forms the basis of SEN Support and replaced the former School Action and School Action Plus arrangements. Responsibility for supporting pupils with SEN belongs across the school through every class and subject teacher, while the SENCo coordinates provision, supports staff and works with families and external professionals where appropriate.

Assess

Assessment should bring together information from different sources, including classroom observations, teacher assessments, standardised assessments, pupil views, parent views and information from previous settings or professionals. The aim is to understand the barrier to learning rather than simply identifying a label.

Plan

Once the school has identified the pupil's needs, the next stage is agreeing what will happen. The pupil and parents should be involved in deciding clear outcomes and identifying the additional provision required to achieve them, and the plan should be specific enough for everyone involved to understand what support is being provided, who is responsible and when the impact will be reviewed.

Do

The agreed provision is then put into practice. The class or subject teacher retains day-to-day responsibility for the pupil's learning, while the SENCo can coordinate additional support and liaise with specialists where required.

Review

The final stage is to evaluate whether the provision has made a difference. Schools should compare the pupil's progress against the outcomes agreed during the planning stage, and adapt and refine as needed.

Four Areas of SEND Code of Practice

The four broad areas of need identified in the code are communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health; and sensory or physical needs.

Communication and interaction

This area includes speech, language and communication needs, as well as difficulties associated with social communication and interaction. For example, a pupil might need support with understanding language, expressing themselves, interpreting social communication or managing changes to routines.

Cognition and learning

This area relates to difficulties with learning and processing information and includes specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia, as well as other learning needs. A pupil may require adjustments to how information is presented, additional opportunities for practice, assistive technology or targeted intervention.

Social, emotional and mental health

This area covers a broad range of needs that may affect a child's ability to engage with learning, relationships or school life. For example, a pupil might have difficulties with emotional regulation, anxiety, attention, behaviour, or social interaction, so schools should consider what may be contributing to the difficulty rather than assuming behaviour alone explains the need.

Sensory or physical needs

This includes needs relating to hearing, vision, physical disability and other sensory or physical difficulties. Provision may include adaptations to the classroom environment, specialist equipment, accessibility adjustments or support from relevant professionals.

One Page Profiles Explained

A one-page profile is a short, person-centred summary of what matters to a child or young person, what others appreciate about them and how best to support them. It is designed to make useful information about a pupil accessible to the adults who work with them, and it may be used alongside SEN Support or an EHC plan to help ensure important information travels with the child between classrooms, staff, and settings.

What is a One-Page Profile?

A one-page profile captures the information someone needs to support the child, and it should focus on the individual rather than becoming another lengthy record of difficulties. A useful profile typically includes three central questions:

• What do people appreciate about me?
• What's important to me?
• How best to support me?

It can sit alongside an EHCP or an Assess, Plan, Do, Review record, but it is not a replacement for either. A profile can be particularly useful when a child starts working with a new teacher, teaching assistant, supply teacher or another adult, and can also be revisited as part of the Assess and Plan stages of the graduated approach.

What to include in a One-Page Profile?

A good one-page profile template should provide enough structure to capture useful information without turning the document into another bureaucratic exercise. Common sections include:

About me

This is a short introduction to the child, including their personality, strengths, interests and anything else they want people to know.

What people like and admire about me

This creates a strengths-based picture of the pupil and helps ensure that their needs do not become the only thing adults see.

What's important to me

This might include interests, routines, friendships, communication preferences, sensory considerations or things that help the pupil feel comfortable and confident.

How best to support me

This is the practical section for staff. It can explain what helps the child learn, communicate, regulate, participate and demonstrate what they know.

Where appropriate, the profile should be written in the child's voice, and strengths-based language is particularly important as it helps adults understand the child as an individual, rather than becoming a list of things they cannot do. It should also be reviewed regularly, ideally at least each term or whenever there is a significant change.

SEND Roles, School Policy and Provision Mapping

Putting the Code into practice involves considerably more than the SENCo. While they play a central coordinating role, SEND provision also involves teachers, support staff, senior leaders, governors, families and, where appropriate, external professionals. Schools also rely on documents and systems that make provision visible, consistent and reviewable, including the school's SEND policy, the local authority's local offer, SEND information report and provision maps.

Role of a SEND Governor and the Local Offer

A SEND governor provides strategic oversight of SEND provision at governing board level, and they can challenge and support the SENCo and leadership team while helping the governing board understand whether the school is meeting its responsibilities and whether SEND provision is having the intended impact.

Practical activities might include meeting the SENCo regularly, reviewing SEND outcomes data and asking how the school evaluates the effectiveness of interventions, and the role is about strategic oversight rather than becoming involved in the day-to-day management of individual pupils.

The SEND local offer is different. A local authority's local offer is a published directory of education, health and care services available to children and young people with SEND in that area. That means that families can use it to understand what support and services are available locally.

A school must also publish its own SEND information report. This is distinct from the local authority's local offer, although the two should connect clearly.

SEND Policy, Audits and Provision Mapping

A school's SEND policy should explain the key arrangements for identifying and supporting pupils with SEND, and at a minimum, address areas such as identification, the graduated approach, roles and responsibilities, and how the school evaluates its provision. An annual review cycle can also be useful, particularly when aligned with the Review stage of the graduated approach, and allows leaders to identify gaps, consider outcomes, and update practice. Provision mapping is another valuable tool, revealing the interventions, adjustments and other support available across different year groups.

Unlike an individual pupil record, a provision map provides a school-wide picture, which can help a SENCo demonstrate to governors, Ofsted or a local authority what provision exists without having to reconstruct that information every time it is requested. A SEND provision map can also help identify patterns. For example, a school may discover that several year groups are relying heavily on one intervention, that certain forms of support are not reaching particular pupils, or that resources need to be allocated differently. Provision maps also provide a whole-school view, while the one-page profile provides an individual pupil's perspective. However, schools often need both because effective SEND practice requires both strategic oversight and personalised support.

What the SEND Code of Practice means for schools, SENCOs and parents

The practical implications of the Code depend partly on your role.

For SENCOs and school leaders

SENCOs and school leaders should start by auditing current SEND provision against the graduated approach. They should ask whether pupils' needs are being assessed using information from multiple sources, whether planned outcomes are clear, whether provision is being delivered consistently and whether reviews lead to meaningful decisions. It is wise to keep one-page profiles and Assess, Plan, Do, Review records current, and to monitor proposed reforms without changing statutory processes prematurely. The current Code remains the reference point in 2026, so schools should prepare thoughtfully while continuing to work within the existing framework.

For class teachers

Inclusive, high-quality teaching is the starting point for every pupil. If a pupil is struggling, begin by looking closely at the barrier to learning, and consider how instructions are presented, whether the pupil has enough processing time, how much written work is required, whether the learning environment is creating additional barriers and which adaptations have already been effective. Teachers also do not need to wait for the SENCo to become concerned before responding to a pupil's needs. While the SENCo coordinates and supports SEND provision, the teaching team still shares responsibility for pupils' progress.

For parents

Understanding the Code can make conversations with school much more productive. If your child is struggling, ask what the school has identified as the barrier to learning, what support is being provided, what outcome the support is intended to achieve and when it will be reviewed. You can also ask how your child's views have been considered and what information has been used to understand their needs. The SEND Code of Practice summary above provides a useful starting point, but parents do not need to become experts in legislation to advocate for their child. The most useful conversations focus on the child's individual needs, the support being provided, and whether that support is making a measurable difference.

Final thoughts

Understanding the SEND Code of Practice is ultimately about understanding how children and young people should be supported to participate, learn and make progress. For schools, the framework provides a structure for identifying needs, planning provision and reviewing outcomes; for SENCOs, it offers a basis for coordinating provision across the school; and for parents, it provides a useful framework for understanding what support they can expect and the questions they can ask.

The 2015 Code remains the statutory reference point in 2026, despite the Government's proposed reforms. That makes it important for schools to understand the existing framework while keeping up to date with future developments.

Practical tools can also make a difference. From reading support and assistive technology to dyslexia-friendly resources, sensory products and classroom aids, the right resources can help turn an identified need into meaningful day-to-day support. That’s why at The Dyslexia Shop, we provide a range of resources designed to support children and young people with dyslexia. Our products are selected and tested with real learners and families in mind, helping schools, teachers and parents find practical tools for everyday learning.

Want to find out more? Explore the range today or contact our team who will be happy to help.